Despite Stadium, Donnelley To Stay

February 08, 1990|By John McCarron, Urban affairs writer.

Executives at R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the giant printing firm west of McCormick Place, on Wednesday denied a television news report that the firm will have to move if a domed stadium is built across Cermak Road from their headquarters at 2223 S. King Drive.

They did complain, however, that the expansion plan unveiled Tuesday by the convention center`s governing board ``walls off`` the Near South Side from the lakefront by closing the 23rd Street bridge over Lake Shore Drive to vehicular traffic.

``I assume we can stay here,`` said Charles C. Haffner III, vice chairman of the Donnelley firm, one of the South Side`s largest employers. ``But this plan needs a lot of work.``

Haffner, who is also a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, complained that the site scheme developed by architects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is preoccupied with the needs of conventioneers and stadium patrons, not with the needs of neighborhoods to the west.

The plan calls for construction of a domed stadium, to be used for Chicago Bears games and other big events, that would span three city blocks along the south side of Cermak from King Drive to Michigan Avenue. A huge convention hall, bigger than the original McCormick Place, would be built east of King Drive and wrap around the McCormick Inn Hotel.

The 23rd Street bridge, now a major traffic link between Lake Shore Drive and Cermak Road, would be converted into an enclosed pedestrian ``galleria``

linking the entire complex together.

``As it stands now, you couldn`t take a bicycle from my office to the lakefront without going down to 31st Street,`` Haffner said.

Several years ago convention center officials promised to build two pedestrian overpasses across Lake Shore Drive in order to secure zoning approval for the so-called McCormick Annex. The overpasses were never built.

Though Haffner said Donnelley has no plans to leave, the stadium plan will require condemnation of several Donnelley-owned truck lots south of Cermak Road. But Haffner said other truck lots can be found.

Several other major employers in the area may not be so lucky.

Morgan Linen Co., which employs 120 people at its towel and uniform plant at 2330 S. Prairie Ave., would be bulldozed to make way for the domed stadium. ``These are union jobs that start at $5.86 an hour with medical benefits, pensions and all the rest,`` Richard Senior, president of the company, said.

At Brink`s Inc., the armored-car company, 234 E. 24th St., general manager Keith Lum said he was surprised to learn that his plant is also being looked at for stadium parking, inasmuch as he has had no official word.

Brink employs 300 people who earn an average of $10 an hour plus full benefits, he said.